Wynonna Judd Reflects on Her Mom Naomi Judd in Heartfelt Tribute for Her 80th Birthday

Wynonna and Naomi Judd in Nashville in April 2022.

Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Getty

Key Points

• Wynonna Judd commemorated her mother, Naomi, on what would have been her 80th birthday.
• “I still feel her everywhere,” Wynonna expressed in an Instagram post shared on January 11.
• Naomi passed away by suicide on April 30, 2022, at the age of 76.

Wynonna Judd paid tribute to her late mother, Naomi Judd, on the third anniversary of her passing, marking what would have been Naomi’s 80th birthday with an emotional post on social media.

In her tribute posted on Instagram on January 11, Wynonna, 66, shared a heartfelt photograph of herself kissing her mother’s cheek. The caption read, “She would have been 80 today. I still feel her everywhere.”

Wynonna further reflected on their family, stating, “She has 2 beautiful GREAT granddaughters we could be celebrating with. Why aren’t you here? I love you, Mom. 🤍”

Naomi and Wynonna Judd performing at their ‘Girls Night Out’ residency in Las Vegas in October 2015.

Isaac Brekken/Getty

Naomi Judd, part of the renowned mother-daughter duo The Judds alongside Wynonna, tragically died by suicide on April 30, 2022, at the age of 76. At that time, Wynonna and her sister, actress Ashley Judd, shared the devastating news through a joint statement. Ashley later posted the message on Instagram.

In their statement, the sisters expressed, “Today we sisters experience a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”

Ashley, Naomi, and Wynonna Judd at the Rally for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan in Hollywood in March 1999.

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Naomi Judd faced significant mental health challenges and openly discussed her battle with suicidal depression. She wrote about her experiences in her 2016 book, River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope.

“Nobody can understand it unless you’ve been there,” she told media at the time. “Think of your very worst day of your whole life – someone passed away, you lost your job, you found out you were being betrayed, that your child had a rare disease – you can take all of those at once and put them together and that’s what depression feels like.”

In a 2022 interview, Wynonna spoke about how their mother’s death brought her and Ashley closer together. “Ashley and I are closer than we’ve been in a long time… We love each other, and we show up for each other,” she said. “We don’t agree on much, but we support one another.”

Ahead of the premiere of the Lifetime docuseries, The Judd Family: Truth Be Told, Naomi’s husband, Larry Strickland, noted that her passing strengthened family bonds. “They were forced together,” he remarked during an interview. “We all had to come together around this trauma, this tragic event. And it, of course, opened our eyes about how short life can be and how fleeting. Realizing that we lost a wife and mother, it forced us to be together, whether we wanted to or not. It just really drove me closer to them because they’re what’s left of [Naomi].”